Union City Station District worth the wait

Updated 4:04 pm, Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Children play inside a pyramid playset in Union City, Calif. on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Children play inside a pyramid playset in Union City, Calif. on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

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The Union City BART Station has been enlarged and modernized as part of the larger effort to turn the surrounding blocks into a transit village.

The Union City BART Station has been enlarged and modernized as part of the larger effort to turn the surrounding blocks into a transit village.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

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On a clear day in Union City Calif. mural art is beautifully lit upon new housing in Union City, Calif.

On a clear day in Union City Calif. mural art is beautifully lit upon new housing in Union City, Calif.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

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A climbing pyramid for children is the centerpiece of a new civic playground that sits next to new affordable housing in the Union City Station District.

A climbing pyramid for children is the centerpiece of a new civic playground that sits next to new affordable housing in the Union City Station District.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

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Children play inside a pyramid playset in Union City, Calif. on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Children play inside a pyramid playset in Union City, Calif. on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

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Pedestrians walk across the crosswalk as they exit the new Union City BART station on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Pedestrians walk across the crosswalk as they exit the new Union City BART station on Sunday, November 4, 2012.

Photo: Alejandra Bayardo, The Chronicle

Union City Station District worth the wait

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The long saga of the quest to build a "transit village" at the Union City BART Station, and the ample tracts of empty land that still remain, testify to the gap between planning theories and real life.

The results so far reveal why such goals are worth pursuing, no matter the fits and starts along the way.

A civic plaza and 157 apartments for low-income families have opened this year on land that once held a utility company's storage facility. They join 773 housing units that a few years ago took the place of car-repair shops and the hazardous remains of a steel mill. The vision for the future includes research parks and more housing.

That vision is taking shape slowly, to be sure. But when you consider the alternative - scarred land or low-slung suburbia that ignores the rapid transit nearby - it's clear that a compact neighborhood oriented to pedestrians and rapid transit is the model to pursue for the way we live now.

The extent to which the so-called Union City Station District is a work in progress was made clear when I stepped off BART on Thursday to attend a ribbon-cutting event for the plaza.

The plaza sits directly east of the BART concourse, but fenced-off tracks for freight trains block the way. As a result, the U-shaped walk around the station and back down 11th Street was a 10-minute trek.

Along the way I passed a parking lot on one side and bare dirt on the other. The 150 or so celebrators saw something else: two steps in the right direction.

A place to loll

The plaza by San Francisco's Roma Design Group includes a grassy berm for lolling and a paved central square large enough for events like these. Aromatic beds of lavender lie beneath olive trees that frame a central granite fountain adorned with a trio of tall bronze dancers sculpted in France by Louis Derbre. They're lithe and alluring, with outstretched arms that beckon.

The six-story apartment complex has a different feel, urban and brash. And it beckons in its own way, with 20-foot-high glass storefronts that face the sidewalk behind a concrete colonnade.

The design for MidPen Housing by David Baker + Partners of San Francisco has the colorful spirit for which the firm is known, yet there also are such nuanced details as the black piping that frames the perforated railings of the generous balconies. As for the stylish storefronts, they're a wager that the nearby blocks will someday house workers and residents looking for shops and cafes.

"What we have in front of us is the result of a 21-year effort to change this ground," said Union City Mayor Mark Green as he began the event. "Wave after wave of people have shown a tremendous amount of patience and perseverance."

The first wave focused on the 60 acres where a steel plant once stood; the plant closed in 1978 and left behind an environmental mess that eventually cost $20 million to clean up.

Worse, plant employees were left without their long-promised medical pensions. The situation improved only after 2000, when U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel appointed Gruen Gruen + Associates as the special master to oversee the site's rebirth and generate revenues to fill the empty pension accounts.

That's also the year that Union City crafted the station district plan to take advantage of the BART station in its midst. Unlike other Bay Area cities that treat transit villages as a necessary evil - add a little bit but not too much, and try to keep the working poor away - this southern Alameda city of 70,000 embraced the concept of a 21st century mixed-use district amid the settled residential ones it already has.

Investment generated

Readying the sites cost the city $83 million in redevelopment funds, but it also has generated $375 million in private investment. Meanwhile, a cumulative $12.9 million has been paid to retired steelworkers.

The BART station has been upgraded to welcome buses on the west, and its east side should be open within three years. My 10-minute journey will become a two-minute stroll; other planning efforts in the works call for a commuter rail stop where freight trains now pass.

There's no telling how the "village" will look when it's complete, or when the final ribbon will be cut. Judging by the evidence so far, the result should be worth the wait.

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